Page 3 of The Gambler's Prize
He’s got to be. His indentured servant? Have to follow his orders? No fuckingway.
“You need to get away from me.” My voice climbs high, anger battling panic.
Grimes grabs for my arm. I try to pull away. The first signs of a struggle: that’s the cue for the otherafiplayers to pack up their things and start to move. Like rats off a sinking ship. The man I was flirting with before gives me a gloating look and heads over to a roulette wheel, taking his drink with him. His night isgoing on as normal while this nightmare encloses me like a vise. My heartbeat speeds, panicking. Your problems are your own here. No one here is going to help me. No one is going to stand between me and Grimes. Not when he’s that huge and looking at me with that wild determination in his eyes. How couldn’t I see it before? I thought it was lust.Idiot. Now it looks like pure hatred. But why? I don’t even know him.
I step back, and immediately Grimes closes the distance between us, like we’re dancing the world’s most unpleasant dance. I’m shivering even though it’s sweaty-hot in here. Grimes’ smile widens as he watches my weakness from his great height.
“Who the hell are you?” I ask.
“It says right there on the contract. Grimes Maccinn.”
“I’ve never even heard of you. Why do you want me as your servant?”
“We don’t want to talk here,” he says.
“Yes, we do.”
Fuck if I’m going to let him take me outside alone. Hard to believe that’s all I wanted to do a few minutes ago. I could kick myself for being so reckless. My friends have warned me about my too-casual vetting process for one night stands. But I’ve always gotten away with it. Until now.
“Sign the contract, Florian,” Grimes says. He hands me a pencil from his pocket.
I grab the pencil and throw it across the room. “The hell I will.”
He takes a step towards me. I take about five back, stumbling. He laughs at me.Laughs. My face flames with humiliation. The “security” guards are nowhere to be seen, not that I want to involve them. Their job is to beat on people who count cards or who win too much, not to save me from unwanted attention.
“Wait, wait.” I hold my hands up in full surrender: the shame of backing down is more appealing than being squashed like a bug. “Look, let’s be rational here.”
Grimes cocks an eyebrow, making me feel even sillier. After all, I’m the one screeching histrionically.
“I’m listening,” he says.
I take a deep breath, rallying my thoughts. I need to think clearly like my life depends on it. Maybe it does.
“There’s been a misunderstanding,” I say. “When you saidIwas the stakes, I thought… you know. You were just being playful.”
“You thought it was a proposition.”
“Obviously. Like you wanted me. To fuck me. Maybe let me fuck you too. You know, the usual kind of thing.”
“Maybe the usual kind of thing for you.”
My cheeks flame. Is he calling me a slut?
“Your reputation precedes you, Florian,” he says, making it very clear that he is indeed calling me a slut. “But believe me, I have no intention of touching any part of that pretty body of yours.”
“You really want an indentured laborer?”
“I do.”
His face, shadowed by the hood, is like granite. He means it. But why choose me? I’m hardly cut out for manual labor. He could’ve thrown a dart at random and hit someone more capable, more useful, than me. I feel like I’m going crazy, trapped in a dream that makes no sense. The dizzy,no way outfeeling is straight from a nightmare. I pinch my arm. It hurts. No dream, then. I look around for some unlikely beam of hope in this grimy place. The local magistrate, Judge Draved, sits at the bar, where he usually is, ignoring about fifty law violations that are right in his sightline. Even though he’s corrupt and useless, surely he can’t be so corrupt and useless as to ratify this ridiculous document Grimes has given me.
“Let’s ask the magistrate,” I suggest.
Grimes shrugs. “Suit yourself.”
He keeps a firm grip on my arm as we walk over, like I’m already his. No fire between us now, no excited flutter of my heart at his touch. My body screams at me to get away. But all I can do is walk at his side like I’m being led to my execution.
“Your Honor, may I have a word?” I say to Judge Draved.
